More firmness and control of pulp vitrescence and browning with high humidity in long storage of plum

The limitation in the conservation of plums is dehydration, rotting and the appearance of problems in the pulp of vitrescence and browning. The CTIFL carried out a trial in which the effect of various conservation methods was analyzed in three groups of plum varieties, with different conservation potentials, collected in two moments. - Varieties with low storage capacity (less than 1 month) - Varieties with medium storage capacity (5 to 6-7 weeks) - Varieties with a high storage potential (6 to 8 weeks). Among the systems tested were Normal Cold (0.5 to 1ºC) and this same temperature with the patented HD Cold system, by Quercy Refrigeration, which maintains a high relative humidity without the need for humidifiers.The comparison between the chamber with normal cold and HD Cold does not show a difference in the number of rotten fruits, against what might be thought, as the latter is a system with a high RH.  The percentage of fruits with vitrescent flesh or internal browning was similar between both systems for the varieties with little conservation potential. The varieties with medium conservation potential had lower vitrescent flesh or internal browing with HD Cold than the little conservation potential varieties. The high conservation potential varieties did not show any of these defects in HD Cold.  These results, the result of a year of trials, were presented by Ghislaine Monteils, monteils.cefel@orange.fr, in the webinar “Conservation et logistique” organized by the CTIFL and which took place on February 4, 2021, accessible in the video at the end of these lines.  Images1 - Screenshot during the presentation of Ghislaine Monteils 2 - Percentage of fruits with pulp problems after 6 weeks of conservation. While in normal cold 100% of the plums showed vitrescent or browning flesh, in HD Cold these figures were 52% and 41% in both varieties, evaluated after 4 days at 19ºC; the HD Cold system in lighter orange.